June 29, 2014

One the second evening of our stay at Fur we decided to eat again at Fur Strand Hotel, as the other alternatives on the small island of Fur did not more interesting. We had also spend 7-8 hours riding on bikes around on the island, so my good girl friend from Copenhagen and I need something easy.

This evening we went for the burger choice, which was a burger made of 180 g minced beef meat garnished with cheese, bacon, tomato, cucumber, salad leafs, red onions and ketchup served in a great tasting bun spread with some type of mayonnaise. As company to the burger was served small baked potatoes and spiced mayonnaise dressing.

It was a very tasty burger, where the beef was fried, so it was not to red on the inside without loosing it´s juiciness.

The burger costed 140 DKK, and I will give this burger meal four stars for it´s great taste.

We were eating this evening meal in a smaller living room of the inn, so next to the dining table was placed a sofa set, so afterwards we simply moved from the dining table to sofas, where we were coffee and tea. Here we went spend the rest of evening writing postcards and readings books. Excellent idea having such sofa groups located in the dining area.

June 28, 2014

Yesterday evening I returned from a lovely stay on the small island of Fur located in the middle of Limfjorden. Here I spend two days at Fur Strand Hotel, which had been purchased as a sweet deal incl one 3-course dinner back in Autumn 2013 for an excellent price of 1300 DKK for two persons. However, both the booking calendar of the hotel and the calendars of two busy working women meant, that the stay first took place two working days last week.
This was actually a perfect timing for us, as we went where during Midsummer time just before Summer vacation hit Denmark !!!! The weather was excellent, sunshine from very early morning to very late evening, so perfect weather for riding bikes around the island of Fur as well dozing in a hammock or on a sandy beach while reading a good book.

As starter we good a small salad of salmon in a dressing with cream cheese and some green stuff of some kind and one big scrimp served together with some excellent bread and butter.

The main course was grilled porkchop

with potatoes,carrot puree and vegetablesaute served with new potatoes. The pork meat was very tasteful and quiet good.

The dessert was a panna cotta served together with passion fruit sauce, freeze-dried raspberry and a fresh strawberry.

Normally I always have a caving for more panna cotta, when served as a much smaller portion else where. However, this time the amount was very much over the top. The portion had the size of 250 ml dairy whipping cream. And the combination of quiet acidic passion fruit sauce and sweet panna cotta was not the best combination.

The service was excellent. So all in all I will four stars for this dinner.

For this challenge I have selected cold potato salad, where all the vegetable ingredients actually have been harvested in my very own little kitchen garden, which is living in various pots. The potatoes are growing in potato pots, the cherry tomatoes is growing in a big green ceramic pot, while parsley and chives are growing in some smaller green ceramic pots.

You can either boil the potatoes, which you need for this potato salad or you can use any left-over potatoes from your evening meal. While the potatoes are as fresh as they are now with a very tiny skin, I boil the potatoes with the skin after a good clean.

June 20, 2014

My garden is full of rhubarb, so I have to come up with new ides, how use these rhubarb. I took the inspiration from this recipe on cookies with ginger and white chocolate, replacing the ginger with freshly picked rhubarb, while maintaining the white chocolate.

Rhubarb and white chocolate is a fantastic classic combination, where the fresh fruitiness goes hand in hand with the sweetness of white chocolate.

Consider to make an extra portion, which you can use a very personalised hostess gift, so a dear person of yours can bake their own home-made cookies. You can easily freeze down this cookie dough.

The only objection I have against this cookie recipe is, that the cookies very easy floates, so I planning to make a new version, where the cookie dough is less floating during baking. I will keep you posted on my progress.

June 19, 2014

I am getting more and more acquainted with my new Lékué bread form, which I got as one of the birthday gifts from my rowing friends, as I keep trying out the various recipes from the small recipe booklet, which came along with the bread form.

This time it is a grain bread recipe, which I tried in my new kitchen equipment.

It is possible to use the bowl shape of the Lékué bread from as a kneading form for hand kneading. However, ever since my trustworthy kitchen helper has moved in, I am using my KitchenAid for all my bread kneading.

Another time I will use all the amount of seeds for roasting, as they basic are falling off the bread, when you take it out the bread form. Less than half the seeds are needed.

Grain bread: - 1 bread

250 g wheat flour

165 g water

6 g salt

5 g yeast

10 g pumpkin seed

10 g linseed

10 g sunflower seed

6 g Nigella seed

6 g white poppy seed

6 g blue poppy seed

For the bread surface:

10 g pumpkin seed

10 g linseed

10 g sunflower seed

6 g Nigella seed

6 g white poppy seed

6 g blue poppy seed

Start by roasting the seeds for the surface in the oven for 180'C for 5 minutes.

Cool down the roasted seeds.

Moisten the seeds with water and place them in the refrigerator, until they should be used on the surface of the bread.

Weigh all the ingredients into the mixing bowl.

Knead everything together on the Kitchen Aid using speed 2 for 4-6 minutes.

Put the bread dough into the Lékué bread form for raising at room temperature for 2 hours. Cover the bread form with a tea towel.

Cover the surface of the bread with the roasted seeds.

Let the bread dough raise at room temperature for another 30 minutes in a closed bread form.

Place the bread dough in the closed Lékué bread form in a closed oven without heat over a bowl full of boiling water for another 30 minutes of raising.

Remove the dough from the oven. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.

Bake the dough in a closed Lékué bread form in the lower part of the oven for 30 minutes at 200'C.

June 17, 2014

Looking around for lilac flower in my neighbourhood I also stumbled on a long row of dog roses, which brought two recipe containing dog roses back into my memory, one being this recipe on rose sugar a la Louisa Lorang and the second one being rose syrup.

Typically you will find dog roses along the coastline of Denmark, where this plant is an unwanted invasive plant. Dog roses are blooming in the June, right here and now you actually see, that the dog roses have started to turn their roses into rosehip, but you still have time for collecting your own dog rose petals.

The rose syrup can be used in cakes, cookies or ice cream. While I am sitting here and writing this blog post, I am starting to think about making a flower afternoon tea, so my very good friends in Horsens, you can already now start to worry about my "evil" flower idea for an afternoon tea :-)UPDATE June 2014:
This elder flower tea is another match made in heaven for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats have the theme of flower. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovageand Jane from The Hedge Combers. The theme for June 2014 has been selected by Karen to be "get floral in flaming June".

Rose sugar a la Loisa Lorang:

300 g sugar

22 g freshly picked rose petals of dog roses

1 stem of lemon grass - roughly chopped

Blendsugar,rose petalsand lemongrassin a food processor.

Spread the sugar on to a baking tray covered with baking paper in a thin layer.

Heat the sugar in a conventional oven at 80'C (not using the fan) for 30-45 minutes, until the sugar is t is completely dry.

June 15, 2014

Quiet some time a go I found this recipe on rose syrup on the blog "Maden i mit liv". In connection with my "hunt" for lilacs for lilac cordial I passed by a long row of dog rose bush in my neighbourhood, and when I remembered two recipes, which were having dog roses as main and most important ingredient, one being rose syrup and he second being rose sugar.

Typically you will find dog roses along the coastline of Denmark, where this plant is an unwanted invasive plant. Dog roses are blooming in the June, right here and now you actually see, that the dog roses have started to turn their roses into rosehip, but you still have time for collecting your own dog rose petals.

The rose syrup can be used in drink and cocktails, as syrup on pancakes, ice cream or yogurt.UPDATE June 2014:
This elder flower tea is another match made in heaven for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats have the theme of flower. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovageand Jane from The Hedge Combers. The theme for June 2014 has been selected by Karen to be "get floral in flaming June".

Rose syrup a la "Maden i mit liv":

100 g freshly picked rose hipsroseleaves

400 g water

½ lemon - juice of it

200 g sugar

Rinsethe rose petalswell,so there is no unwanted animals left in them.

Add rose petals and water into a larger cooking pot. Bring roses and water to the boil and let everything simmer for 5-10 minutes. The cooking process is done with the lid on, so all the wonderful flavours remains inside.

Remove the cooking pot from from the heatand pass it through afine sieve, removing the rose petals. Put pressure on the rose petals to get the every single drop of liquid out of them.

Add the liquid back into the cooking pot together with lemon juice and sugar.

Once the sugar is dissolved, the rose syrup is actually finished, however, you can boil it in to desired consistency.

Pour the hot syrup into bottle, which has been heated in advance with boiling water.

June 14, 2014

I am in the process of familiarising myself with the Lékué bread form, which I got as one of the birthday gifts from my rowing friends. This bread form came along with a small recipe booklet, which I am testing out. This time it is brioche recipe, which I tried in my little kitchen.

As a first remark my version of the brioche does look anything like the picture in the recipe booklet, but the taste is amazing, so why care about photo shopped picture !!!!

It is possible to use the bowl shape of the Lékué bread from as a kneading form for hand kneading. However, ever since my trustworthy kitchen helper has moved in, I am using my KitchenAid for all my bread kneading.

Brioche a la Lékué: - 1 bread

250 g wheat flour

100 ml water

8 g yeast

20 g sugar

64 g milk

4 g salt

44 g butter - room temperature

1 egg

Weigh all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except for the butter and egg.

June 13, 2014

Asparagus has season until Midsummer, when the plants have to rest and gather new energy for other asparagus for the coming year. So how do you preserver asparagus, well you could freeze them or make pickled asparagus !!!! So you still have about 2 weeks left for pickling your own asparagus :-)

I have found this recipe on pickled asparagus in the weekly magazine "Alt for Damerne", issue 21/2014, which I decided to try out. I made one change to the original recipe, replacing white wine vinegar with apple vinegar with elderflower, as I had apple vinegar in my little kitchen and no white wine vinegar. And I did not want to go to the supermarket to but white wine vinegar with the purpose of only using it in this specific recipe.

Pickled white asparagus can be used in patty shells, asparagus soup and just enjoyed as they are.

Pickled white asparagus:

500 g thin white asparagus

750 g water

75 g apple vinegar or white wine vinegar

5 black pepper corns

10 g honey

Start by adding boiling water to the storage container.

Breaking the asparagus, where it naturally breaks and throw away the ends.

June 11, 2014

Koldskål or as it translates into English "cold buttermilk soup" is a traditional Danish summer dish. You will served it as a cold evening meal on hot summer days, so you do not have sweat away in a hot kitchen making dinner.

Cold buttermilk soup can be served either as main dish (which is what I am used to from my family) or as dessert. I will be eating it with a soup, however, some people will be drinking it. As you see many options for this specific dish.

I prefer to use thick milk for this dish, as I like the more creamy mouth feel coming from this product instead of the traditional buttermilk with only 0.5% fat. Anyway use what type of mesophilic fermented dairy product, which you available in your refrigerator, what ever it is buttermilk, thick milk or A-38. However, using yogurt would give you a too acidic dish.

The inspiration to this version of cold buttermilk soup I found in the magazine "Isabellas" (issue 03/2014). The modification is that I have replaced the mint leaves with strawberries and use more egg yolk, as pasteurised egg yolk is coming in a portion of 2 egg yolks per cup.

June 09, 2014

Some time ago my mother and I drove to Ebeltoft to have brunch at the Glascafeen på Glasmuseet in Ebeltoft using a "sweet deal", where we for 129 DKK got both brunch (148 DKK) as well as access to the Glass Museum (85 DKK), so a pretty good deal for us !

We started the brunch by being served yogurt made on milk from Naturmælk with homemade muesliand fruitsyrup together with a morning shoot made from juice from beet root and ginger. At the same time we were served a glass of sparkling wine as well as juice.Next part of the brunch were:

As starting impression this part of the brunch did not look it would be enough. The waiter told us, when serving, that we needed more food, we should ask for it. However, the cafe did not want to waste too much by making overwhelming portion size. In the end the portion size has big enough to fill us and our stomachs. I will give this brunch 4 stars.

After having enjoyed the brunch we had a look at the Glass Museum, where is a mirror room with glass mosaic created by Tróndur Patursson from Faeroe Island. I adore this glass mosaics, which I enjoy on regular basis, as similar glass mosaics can be seen in one of the parking houses in Vejle

June 08, 2014

Ever since, that I saw the TV programme "Anne og Anders på Svinkløv Badehotel", I have wanted to make the walnut cream cake, which is a signature cake of Svinkløv Badehotel. Googling "valnøddelagkage Svinkløv Badehotel" let me to this recipe: Valnøddelagkage fra Svinkløv Badehotel.

I made a few changes, as I did not to 1 liter of dairy whipping for one cream cake as I am having a challenging relationship to whipped cream on it´s own. Some times I have the feeling, that whipped cream is growing in my mouth due to it´s fatty taste and texture. So I "downsized" on the amount of dairy whipping cream, and therefore also adjusted on the amount of walnuts and dark chocolate. Dark chocolate being another food stuff, which I have a challenging relationship to due to it´s intense taste. I love milk chocolate and really dislike dark chocolate !!! However, I did not want to exchange the dark chocolate with milk chocolate in this cream cake, as the sweetness of the milk chocolate easily become too much.

Both my good rowing friends and my colleagues (who enjoyed the leftover from my birthday coffee table) became great fans of this walnut cream cake.

Another tip regarding the cutting process of such a cream cake. It is recommended to heat up the the cutting knife in almost boiling water, before making the actual cut in the cake. Also use some kitchen towel for removal of cake leftovers between each cutting. By doing this, the knife will smoothly cut the cake.

June 07, 2014

I found this tea in a local interior shop here in Vejle, where it had been reduced from 120 DKK to 90 DKK, and I as usual has attracted by it´s nicely designed tin, I took it home with me.

It is a Spring tea from Normann Copenhagen, which is a black Indian and Chinese tea with rose leaves and flavour. So the use of rose leaves was also an attraction for me.

You can easily see the rose leaves in the tea, however, it is difficult for me to detect any rose flavour in the final tea. The tea taste more like a typical Earl Grey, so I am slightly disappointed about this tea. The tin is nice, but the price is too high being a basic Earl Grey-style tea without having the good tea quality as Kusmi tea.

June 06, 2014

This is a very juicy and great tasting apple cake coming from the use of Muscovado sugar, cinnamon and grated apples. I have located the recipe in the magazine "Countryliv" (issue 01/2014). I have made no changes at all to it.

Depending on the size of the tray form, the baking time needs to be adjusted. Instead of the 30 minutes baking time, the cake, which I baked needed 45 minutes, so you really needs to check the consistency of the cake during the baking.

Apple cake with raisins and almonds:

3 eggs

150 g dark Muscovado sugar

125 g butter - soft

185 g (cake) wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon.

4 small apples - roughly grated

100 g raisins

1 tablespoon (cake) wheat flour

40 g almond splits

Heat the (conventional) oven to 175'C

Whip egg and sugar together using an electrical whipper.

Add in the soft butter and whip again.

Add flour, baking powder and cinnamon in the dough and whip everything together.

Stir in the grates apples.

Mix the raisins and tablespoon of flour together. Add the raisin into the dough as well. By mixing the raisins with some flour, it is ensured, that the raisins will be remain everywhere in the cake dough instead of dropping to the bottom of the cake during baking.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Pour the dough into the baking tray.

June 04, 2014

As final celebration of my birthday I invited a group of wonderful female rowers around for "kagebord" or coffee table being the English translation.

Coffee table is where you serve a selection of buns, cakes and cookies as the eatable part of the coffee table, while the drinkable part of the coffee table is either coffee or tea being a huge tea drinker myself.

Usually the first serving at a coffee table is the bun. The bun is served together with butter, jam and perhaps cheese. My "tradition" is to bake some saffron buns, which is my opinion is not a match made in heaven, if they are served together with cheese, as I think too easily can dominated over the delicate taste of saffron.

Next item on the coffee table is the cake part. And here I had baked/made three different types:

The cutting process of this cream cake turned out to be something of a team work exercise. As usual no one is very keen to make the first cut into a cream cake, as it can be quiet tricky to remove the first piece of a cream cake. And it was quiet difficult to cut down through the cake.

Luckily someone mentioned, that in a cake programme with Mette Blomsterberg the recommendation was to heat up the cutting knife in almost boiling water, before making the actual cut in the cake. So boiling water and kitchen towel (for removal of cake leftovers between each cutting) were brought to the coffee table. So one person cleaned and heated the knife, a second person made the cuttings into the cake and a third person handed the cake dished around the table. An excellent exercise of team work :-)

Again I was treated to some very nice birthday gifts in form of earrings and a silicone bread form from Lékué, which I am looking forward to bake bread in :-) Thank you very much to my rowing friends for some great gifts and your excellent company.

June 02, 2014

One of the lovely smells of springtime here in Denmark is the magic smell of lilac blooming in garden and along the roadside together their wonderful colours of white, light purple, light pink and purple.

I had no idea, that you could use the lilac flowers for making jams or cordial. However I recently found some recipe on such on Facebook.

I first took myself the time yesterday for hunting the wonderful flower lilac. It is really at the end of the blooming season for lilac. And I was luckily to find a white lilac still blooming in the boundary of garden, where I hidden could cut the needed flower heads !!! I did not dare to cut the lilac in my neighbours front gardens !!!

I imaging, that I will use this lilac cordial for ice cream, cake and cocktails.

The feast started out in courtyard with a glass of champagne and cutting board full of fried asparagus and fried flounder, various crips of cheese and root fruits. Some of the crips were served in the backbone of cod skeleton playing a big role as crips holder (nice detail). The dips were fresh cheese (green colour) and curry flavour dip (yellow colour, big surprise !)

Appetizer

After a nice chat we went indoor to the really asparagus party, which started out with an appetizer in form of corn boiled in lobster bisque, dried tomatoes, green asparagus and plenty of lumpfish roe decorated with chives.Uuuhmm :-)

First starter without soup

The first starter was asparagus soup, where the filling was white asparagus pickled with salty lemons, lightlysmokedhaddock, various green herb stuff and some unknown purple flowers. The soup was served using China coffee pot, another nice detail.

First starter with soup

Second starter

The second starter was the green version of asparagus with poached eggs, smoked beef and wild watercress, hazelnuts and green asparagus oil. Another mouthful of magic.

Main course

The main course was chicken from Hopballemølle, which was formed into a kind of a roll with crips dough around. The vegetable part were fried white asparagus, potatoes, small onions and mushroomssauce.After this main course we were starting to feel pretty filled in our stomachs. However, we still had the dessert to finish off with. And this was the very first dish of the evening NOT involving asparagus !!!!, which was a bit disappointing, as the asparagus was an ingredient in 2013 as well in the dessert. Well, the taste of the dessert was perfect without the asparagus !!!!

One part was rhubarb clafoutis served together with vanilla ice creamand rhubarb foam having a very light structure.

For this meal I was paying 550 DKK incl 1/3 of bottle of white wine. I will give this experience 5 stars. I will already now warn you, that I will be returning again for the asparagus feast taking place in 2015.